This invention relates to acquiring identification (ID) data from multiple sources, and in particular a data decoding component which can be added to, or designed into, existing ID processing devices.
Many transactions, from using credit cards to checking in at airports to purchasing age-restricted products, require positive identification, along with pertinent ID data from the person initiating the transaction. To date, acquiring ID data in an automated fashion has been restricted to special purpose applications such as age verification for alcohol purchases in areas having strict control of such purchases, such as “dry” counties or states. For most current applications, ID verification requires presentation and human inspection of a card which establishes ID, or a person hand-entering his private ID verification information.
Despite the limited general application to date, a significant amount of work has been done in the area of automated acquisition of data from the most common ID card, the drivers license, particularly since digitally encoded data is currently or becoming available on many licenses. Although most individuals, at least in the developed countries, have drivers licenses, and most drivers licenses contain the pertinent ID information required for many transactions, automated drivers license inspection faces many obstacles. For one, drivers licenses from differing granting bodies utilize a variety of media for encoding data, including one or more of magnetic stripe, bar-code, and steganographic patterns. In addition to variations in encoding media, there is no commonly adhered format for how the data is encoded. On the other hand the ubiquitous nature of drivers licenses make them an attractive ID verification, particularly compared to suggested alternatives such as separate government-issued ID cards, which have been suggested by the Homeland Security Department of the US government, among other governmental bodies. Such separate universal ID cards face significant political and practical barriers.
Scanners have been produced that can read and output raw data from multiple types of encoding media. Examples of such scanners are Models 250 and 200 available from E-Seek corporation and the Model 4710 available from Handheld Products Inc. These scanners can read optically and/or magnetically encoded data from ID cards such as licenses. Such scanners can be designed into new systems, or often easily retrofitted into existing systems.
The problem of differing drivers license data formats is much less well addressed. To date, the approach to decoding card reader data from differing formats has been to program decoding software into the processors associated with ID reading and processing systems. Such approaches are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,864,623 and it's associated family members. Such an approach, and others including software products available from the assignee of this invention, may be appropriate for a new ID system design, or where suitable software-configurable systems already exist.
However, there is a very large number of installed systems and existing designs, such as ATM machines, automated gasoline pumps, automated airline check-in machines, POS systems, Credit Card terminals, security terminals and many others, which could benefit greatly from the ability to read ID information. Most of these machines cannot easily be re-programmed to decode multiple data formats, such as required for universal reading of drivers licenses, without extensive new software design. Therefore it is the object of this invention to provide a novel approach to ID data decoding, which will allow for ID data acquisition across a much wider spectrum of applications without the need for separate ID cards or extensive new equipment design.